European Coordination Via Campesina

CALL TO NYELENI EUROPE FORUM AND CAMP, AUGUST 2011, AUSTRIA

ArticleBrussels, 13 Sep 2010

We, the organizers of the International Nyeleni Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali in 2007 (http://www.nyeleni.org/?lang=en&lang_fixe=ok) , call on all those who resist and struggle throughout Europe to join us in the construction of a European movement for Food Sovereignty.

On the 16th – 21st August 2011 in Krems, Austria we hope to bring together a mass meeting of groups, unions, associations and collectives of farmers, students, activists, ecologists, agricultural workers and landless youth and any others who are working for food sovereignty in Europe and in the world.

Europe has become integrated into an unsustainable global food system controlled by corporate interests and based on environmental degradation, the exploitation of resources of other peoples and social and economic inequality – facilitated through the impunity of transnational corporations and financial markets. The consequences of this model are visible everywhere in our food and agricultural systems and policies.

It is time to change the framework of European agricultural policies from those based on WTO rules to those based on people’s food sovereignty. A new food and agricultural policy for Europe should be based on re-localizing agricultural production, supporting small producers and facilitating access to land for new farmers and collectives, while challenging the dominance of industry and private interests in the production, transformation and distribution of food for European citizens.

Across Europe people are organizing from the grassroots to take back control of their food and agricultural systems. These forces of resistance make up a wealth of experiences which is still vastly dispersed, ignored, hidden and sometimes clandestine.

It is time for these forces to come to the fore and build a new way of organizing our food systems – from the seeds in the fields to the food on our plates – which will nurture the biodiversity, environment and local cultures and traditions of our regions, as well as reversing the disappearance of European food producers.

The Nyeleni Europe Forum in Austria should act as a catalyst for this, opening a space in Europe to define the struggles and strategies necessary in order to create a movement for Food Sovereignty which can challenge the dominant forces of production and consumption present in today’s society.

In the knowledge that the road is as important as the destination, we call on organizations and groups in every state, region, province and county to come together and define their vision of food sovereignty for Europe, based on the principles defined at Nyeleni forum in 2007, and above all to participate in the organization of the forum itself.

Whoever you are, if you are interested in participating, please contact: nyelenieurope2011@gmail.com

More information on the objectives of the Nyeleni Forum in Mali in 2007:

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